Turlock, CA (California), Russian dance, song, music school assembly program

Russian school assembly trio performed in Turlock, California on Tuesday, March 26, 2013.
The show took place at the Turlock Junior High School, 3951 N Walnut Rd, Turlock, CA 95382.
Students and teachers spent about 45 minutes learning about Russian culture through songs, music, dance and language.
Artistic director/founder Mikhail Smirnov played the garmoshka, a Russian-style diatonic button accordion and guitar. In between playing songs on their instruments, singing songs, and dancing traditional numbers to the music, Mikhail Smirnov shared a little bit of the Russian language with the students. He taught them phrases such as "Thank You" (SPASIBO), "Hello" (ZDRAVSTVUITE), "You're Welcome" (PAZHALUYSTA) and "Bye" (PAKA) as well as the alphabet and counting. He said each word in English and then slowly in Russian, allowing the children a moment to try the words themselves after each one. After the segment on words, the students attempted to chatter in Russian for a couple minutes, smiling and laughing about how they sounded. Almost in the end of the performance, Mikhail paused to share a couple of Russian tongue twisters, explaining each one in English first, and then saying them in Russian at top speed. With each one, the twisters got more complicated and lengthy. There was even a chance for a handful of students to get up on stage and try out a couple of Russian percussion instruments.
Dancer Elena performed classical ballet, and Russian traditional dances.
Musical director of the group Elina Karokhina played the balalaika, a three-stringed, triangular instrument.